Shawcuterie

A good idea can start with a joke. This idea began as a bad pun, veered into the realm of speculation, and was finally implemented on a whim.

In exchange for an assortment of custom spice blends, I sent my friend Mark some fennel salami and Spanish chorizo, both products of the Cabinet of Doctor Charcuterie. When I heard nothing from him after about a week, I emailed him to ask if he had received my package. His response, “we’re saving the Shawcuterie for the weekend,” was pretty funny, but then he followed up with “shawcutertie.com is still available, but Amy [his wife] wants to buy it.”

I know a challenge when I see it, so I immediately grabbed the domain for myself. Which left me with an unanswered question: What should I do with it?

Even though the year-long Charcutepalooza challenge has ended, I continue to prepare tasty salted pig parts in the Belm Utility Research Kitchen. I don’t want to write a post every time I make a disaster-free salami, but I would like to document my progress. Enter Shawcuterie (shawcuterie.com), a Tumblr blog that I will occasionally update with photos of my cured meat successes as well as the occasional food porn of charcuterie from other more accomplished cooks. I hope that it will spur me on to improve not only my charcuterie skills, but my photography as well.

Have a look. Let me know if you think it’s a good idea or a bad pun gone horribly wrong.